“I’ve tried everything, and I’m still stuck,” said a dentist the other day. There is a silent epidemic going on in dentistry. The daily work vibe has changed in recent years. Now dentists have to worry about more than just doing their best clinical work. They have to worry about Google reviews, maintaining a reliable team, and how to navigate changed social norms. I believe it’s a result of social media. Many have told me that patients have changed since Covid– that they’re harder to work with because they have higher entitlements and, frankly, aren’t as nice. With all these...
Do you ever feel like you’re trapped in an endless loop of unhappiness with your dental career? And no matter what you try– more vacations, dropping down a day a week, or learning that new procedure– nothing ever really fixes your career. You always end up in the same feelings of depression and anxiety. (Hint: your career is not supposed to feel this way, so stop justifying that it’s normal!) Ask me how I know this. I spent years riding the roller coaster of dentistry. For weeks I tried my best to love it, then the next few weeks I’d...
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say, “You can have it all?” I get it. You’re probably thinking I’m delusional right about now. It’s impossible to balance work, kids, family, rest, and fun– right? What if I changed that well-known cliche to this: “You can have what you want!” Does that feel a little more realistic, as if I’m not trying to trick you into believing a lie? I hope so. Over the last seven years career coaching dentists and hygienists, I’ve witnessed amazing transformations– enough to convince me that it’s true. You can indeed have...
Have you heard of the principle that “we are all connected?” It’s one I’ve often learned about from some of my favorite spiritual gurus, and I’ll admit– at times this concept has been hard for me to grasp. If you look around, you’ll see that we all have our unique personalities, lives, and agendas. Our individuality is exactly what makes us special. If each of us are all independent beings who march to our own rhythms, then how can we simultaneously all “be one?” It’s also hard to imagine how I can “be one” with a complete stranger driving in...
For years the hive mind of dentistry tried to fit all dentists into a box. If you weren’t a private practice owner, then you weren’t successful. If you chose to teach at a dental school, it was because you “couldn’t hack it in the real world.” If you were burnt out or stressed, then you were a wimp, and something was wrong with you. While there are still some dentists who think this way, times are changing. I recently shared a podcast interview with The Truth Behind Dentistry that gained some popularity on Youtube. It was a fun collaboration, but with...
The other day I had a great conversation with a very successful dentist who was looking for a change. As we discussed how I, as a coach, help dentists design their careers on their terms, the topic of community came up. She mentioned to me that she has a few friends who also want change, and they’re not that happy in dentistry. Their friendship is so great because they can get together and blow off some steam… aka complain. But she laughed as she shared that all they ever do is complain, and they never do anything about it. It...
How long did it take you to get into dentistry? I mean, really… think back all the way to the beginning. You may have been like me and chose it when you were just a kid. That’s a pretty early start! I developed a crush on dentistry before my teen years, but I never actually dated dentistry before marrying it. Instead, it was as if I created an ideal image of dentistry just from studying it’s Bumble profile. I thought dentistry would be a certain way, but when reality didn’t match my hopes, I obsessed about the quickest way to...
It’s out! US News and World Report has suddenly caught on to our little known secret and the truth about dentistry. In 2013, they dubbed dentist as THE best job in America. That was 2 years after I quit dentistry, and that year I questioned the validity of this crown in my blog post, The Pros and Cons of Dentistry. Finally, someone put out an honest depiction of what it’s like to be a dentist. Okay yeah, I’m referring to myself here. (That’s a joke in case you couldn’t read my tone! We need a font for that.) You should be...
How long have you talked about change without really getting anywhere? That used to be me. All I did was talk, talk, talk about how I wanted to find a new career, or quit dentistry, or finally be happy and have fun in my life. I was all talk and no action. I didn’t know what to do or how to do it. No matter how often I googled “other jobs dentists can do,” it never led me anywhere. The problem was I was too scared to take even the tiniest baby step forward. Playing it safe kept me stuck...
In January, I spoke about shifting your energy to shift your burnout at the Rocky Mountain Dental Convention (RMDC) 2024. Here is an overview of the discussion, as featured in the corresponding issue of the MDDS Articulator magazine (page 14.) Do you ever feel burnt out by burnout? The word is everywhere these days. I’ll admit, as someone who loves helping others reduce burnout, even I sometimes get sick of hearing it. There’s a reason this word gets so over-abundantly used though. Burnout is currently the pervasive problem that we, as a profession, still struggle to solve. During my decade...
